CW Keying

[W7CS]

To John and all the "Old Timers" with their great historical stories.

My three high school buddies and I were studying the code and theory
for our Ham licenses under a great mentor, our AZ SCM.  Tucson was in
the never, never land that only got visited no more than twice a year
by the FCC examiner (RI).  We all ended up taking the CW test three
times before passing.  He just turned down the McElroy tape machine
speed from the 1st Class Commercial test, which totally messed up the
rhythm (that we were used to).  The 2nd time I had copied120 straight
letters/characters (65 required), but one in the middle was
incorrect.  He required also that you be perfect in the straight key
sending test !  So finally I passed in '47, and at that time I was
the youngest ham in AZ at 15. A year later, we all with ease, passed
the Class "A" test.

A couple of years later, a family friend who was a Lt. in the local
Naval Reserve, inquired if I might like to join his reserve unit.  He
said that he needed some one to teach his sailor radiomen the code
and some theory.  Because I had a ham license and was experienced in
CW use, he could offer me a higher than entry level rate.  So I
accepted the 3rd Class Petty Officer rank, and at a very young 17,
began teaching classes of much older seamen.  I found that copying
with a "mill" was much easier than with a pencil.  My high school
touch typing class helped me to easily adapt.

The rest of the story :  After a ROTC commission (to basically draft
dodge Korea), I spent a few years on active duty and many, many in
the active ("on call") Reserve for a total of 43 (I always was gung
ho) and full military retirement.

73,  Chuck,  W7CS

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[Tony Estep]

On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Chuck Smallhouse <[hidden email]> wrote:

> ...ended up taking the CW test three times....


Ah, the CW test. I still remember the beginning of the text from my General
exam in 1958: "Turning westward, 300 aircraft blanketed the horizon..."

Tony KT0NY
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[Alan Bloom]

Years ago, Chuck Bender W1WPR, chief operator at W1AW, was giving the
Novice exam to young Jamie White, son of a couple HQ staffers.  He
didn't want to make the 5 wpm CW test too easy for fear of being accused
of going easy on the ARRL kid.  The text included:

"McKeesport is situated at the confluence of the Youghiogheny and the
Monongahela."

I believe Jamie got 100%.

Alan N1AL


On Thu, 2011-06-30 at 15:32 -0500, Tony Estep wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Chuck Smallhouse <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > ...ended up taking the CW test three times....
>
>
> Ah, the CW test. I still remember the beginning of the text from my General
> exam in 1958: "Turning westward, 300 aircraft blanketed the horizon..."
>
> Tony KT0NY



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[Kate Hutton]

For the last few years, some of the traffic handlers in California have been
running a trivia game, conducted via the NTS.  For a short while, "tough
copy" got taken to somewhat of an extreme.  Try "NAME THE ICELANDIC VOLCANO
WHOSE ASH CLOSED AIRPORTS IN EUROPE IN 2010."  Or "WHAT IS THE SCIENTIFIC
TERM FOR STOMACH RUMBLING QUERY."  Or "WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AA AND
PAHOEHOE QUERY."

At some point we toned it down because we didn't want to scare anyone off!

73 Kate K6HTN

On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 2:24 PM, Alan Bloom <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Years ago, Chuck Bender W1WPR, chief operator at W1AW, was giving the
> Novice exam to young Jamie White, son of a couple HQ staffers.  He
> didn't want to make the 5 wpm CW test too easy for fear of being accused
> of going easy on the ARRL kid.  The text included:
>
> "McKeesport is situated at the confluence of the Youghiogheny and the
> Monongahela."
>
> I believe Jamie got 100%.
>
> Alan N1AL
>
>
> On Thu, 2011-06-30 at 15:32 -0500, Tony Estep wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 30, 2011 at 3:23 PM, Chuck Smallhouse <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> >
> > > ...ended up taking the CW test three times....
> >
> >
> > Ah, the CW test. I still remember the beginning of the text from my
> General
> > exam in 1958: "Turning westward, 300 aircraft blanketed the horizon..."
> >
> > Tony KT0NY
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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>
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> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

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[Phil Kane-2]

On 6/30/2011 1:32 PM, Tony Estep wrote:

> Ah, the CW test. I still remember the beginning of the text from my General
> exam in 1958: "Turning westward, 300 aircraft blanketed the horizon..."

  My favorite tape was the 13 wpm one with "The launching of the
  four stage rocket..."  I still use that phrase in situations
  such as "That really set me off like a four stage rocket...."

  The 20 wpm had one with "...the foreman and his crew..."  The
  code groups had a bunch of interesting combos, and it took me
  a while to realize that there were several pairs, one reading
  forwards (FILSN) and one reading backwards (NSLIF), scattered
  through the chart.

  See what we have lost with Volunteer Examiners??   :-)

--  73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
    Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

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